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Jacquelyn Martin/Associated PressPeople lined up outside an Apple store in Washington in June 2010 to buy the new iPhone.

The purpose of campaign finance laws and regulation is to promote confidence in government and to encourage people to engage in the political process. This mission is being advanced in a new way by states on opposite coasts, California and Maryland. The California Fair Political Practices Commission and the Maryland State Board of Elections, two independent state agencies that oversee campaign finance, recently approved first-in-the-nation rules permitting low-dollar text message contributions to political campaigns. Our agencies recognize that technological advances have opened the door for unparalleled involvement in public life.

Text-message political giving has the potential to transform the political process by democratizing fund-raising. Perhaps most important, it is one way to encourage grass-roots participation in political campaigns. People tend to have a greater sense of personal involvement in the issues in an election if they have made a contribution, even if it’s a small one. This connection can lead to increased civic engagement and ultimately a more robust democracy. Increased participation by many small contributors is also one way to counter the effect of big money in politics. Encouraging grass-roots giving is sorely needed in an election season where there is unlimited independent spending through “super PACs.”

Text donations have become a major, if not a required, tool to raise money and awareness. The fund-raising efforts for relief after the earthquake in Haiti and the tsunami in Japan proved that such giving can make a difference. The ability to instantly text donations to relief agencies resulted not only in a groundswell of donations, but increased public awareness and concern for the devastating situation in those nations. Of the $255 million the Red Cross received for Haiti relief and recovery efforts in the month after the quake, more than $32 million was pledged when people texted “Haiti” to 90999 to donate $10. At certain points, text donations came in at a rate of $200,000 per hour.

When people give even a small amount of money, they pay more attention. They feel a personal connection. That connection results in more involvement in issues generally. More than half of the donors surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project made text message contributions to other disaster relief efforts after their Haiti donation. And just under half of them encouraged their friends or family members to make similar contributions using their cellphones.

Americans have embraced mobile communications devices and use them for everything from voting for their favorite contestant on “American Idol” to buying a latte. Cellphones now accommodate all manner of commercial transactions. But we still have no app to be able to exercise our First Amendment right to send some money to a political candidate or a ballot measure committee. Often backed by one industry, union or wealthy individual, California’s ballot measures deal with controversial issues like immigration, marriage rights and health care. People would be able to be directly involved in these issues in an unprecedented way if they were able to text-message contributions.

Many people in this country are disengaged from the political process. Trust in government is low and a large part of the population does not vote. Since 1980, voter turnout in presidential election years has hovered between 50 to 57 percent. Yet recent grass-roots movements have had a profound effect on politics at the national level. In the 2008 presidential election, for example, the Obama campaign reported that 90 percent of its donors gave $100 or less and 41 percent gave $25 or less. In the 2010 midterm elections, Tea Party-endorsed candidates topped the list of grass-roots fund-raisers.

Permitting text contributions will encourage participation in political processes by a new generation as well as by those who have been traditionally uninvolved. There are many people, young and old, who are not accustomed to writing contribution checks and certainly are not likely to attend a $1,000-a-plate fund-raiser. The ease of mobile contributions and the fact that more and more Americans have smartphones and not land lines would allow those who may be inspired by a candidate or cause to send $5 or $10.

The idea is simple. You text a number code or click a link on your smartphone saying you’ll make a $5 or $10 contribution to a candidate. This is a pledge or an “opt-in” until it is paid. The contribution charge appears on your monthly cellphone bill where you can review and pay it. Parents whose kids have texted contributions on a family plan can pay the charge or delete it from the bill. After subscribers pay their phone bills, a data aggregator — a firm that handles mobile transactions — collects the donations from the wireless phone company and directs them to the candidate’s political committee, which receives and reports the contributions. Text giving programs are often capped at $30 per phone number. (Texting donations does not involve cellphone users’ being cold-called by political fund-raisers; this is already prohibited by F.C.C. rules.)

California and Maryland’s new regulations permit the wireless carriers, aggregators and political committees to meet disclosure requirements and to make a profit. But in this election cycle, people are not able to take advantage of text-message contributing because wireless carriers have not yet made it available.

Wireless carriers have expressed three objections. First, that text contributions may give the appearance that a carrier endorses or is affiliated with a particular candidate, perhaps one with extreme views. No company wants to be associated with a neo-Nazi party or to be forced to give them a text number by law. The extremist issue is a non-starter because none of the regulations or laws will ever force a company to engage its services against its will. The aggregators can require that candidates be bona fide and on the ballot, as they require that charities who participate in their text giving programs be legitimate. Fund-raising has been around since there have been elections, and so have extreme candidates. Cellphone users are sophisticated enough to distinguish between a political candidate and their wireless carrier.

Second, carriers do not want any additional responsibilities placed on them by regulations. There is no merit to their concern because under California and Maryland’s new regulations, the legal responsibility is on the political committees to ensure that contributions are properly disclosed, not on the wireless carriers or aggregators. Third, the wireless carriers are not certain that the political text contributions will be profitable enough. This objection will be addressed through the market as candidates compete for broad access to text contributions, and does not justify limiting the use of mobile phones as a tool for civic engagement.

Another obstacle to implementation of text donations has been the lack of support from federal regulators and other states. It is imperative that regulators in the campaign finance arena not block the potential for technology to increase the involvement of citizens in the political process. The Federal Election Commission, which had turned down a request to permit text donations in 2010, is considering the issue again.

A Republican and a Democratic political consulting firm, together with a leading aggregator for wireless carriers, filed a request that the F.E.C. will consider next week to approve a new program of mobile text contributions. In what one F.E.C. commissioner quipped may be the “last time they agree,” the Obama for America and Romney for President campaigns both urge the F.E.C. to support the text donation proposal. They believe it will encourage small donor participation and is the modern equivalent of “pass the hat” fund-raising.

In an era of increasing influence by large political donors, regulators and wireless carriers should do more to facilitate participation by the little guy. End the blackout on small text donations. Do you agree? Text (1) for support and (2) for no.

Ann Ravel is chairwoman of the California Fair Political Practices Commission. Jared DeMarinis is director of the Maryland State Board of Elections Division of Candidacy and Campaign Finance. Hyla Wagner is senior counsel at the Fair Political Practices Commission.

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